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polymods ([personal profile] polymods) wrote in [community profile] polylogs2021-05-01 03:00 pm

Destination: Carcosa

POLYMYTHOS: CARCOSA

Carcosa


Ⅰ. THE TEMPLE
You can read all about your character's arrival in the game lore.
The island's harbour is full of other ships, although not a single one of them seems to actually have a human being aboard. (You could certainly try to steal one, but doing so is an exercise in futility - you will find that even if you set off into the ocean you will wind up right back in the harbour again after spending a few hours lost in the fog.) Beyond the harbour is a glittering city of glass and gold. Curving arches and sharp geometric lines are the hallmarks of the architecture - an art deco paradise that whispers of decadence and hope for the future.

The people who crowd the streets wear suits and hats, drop-waist dresses and furs. Their faces are all blank smiles. It's the roaring twenties, darling, why do you look so concerned?

If it is your first experience of the Endless Isles, you have access to the High Temple. Should you wish, you may also seek out the island's own temple as well, which is located inside the city, in a district mostly forgotten by the residents. Don’t worry - your feet will carry you there.

The building is not large, and it is old and neglected. It has a domed ceiling, with panels of glass crisscrossed with metal painted gold curving upward. Whatever fine pattern may have formed there is lost to time; the glass at the centerpoint of the dome is gone, letting in the smell of the sea.

There are rooms equipped with beds spreading out like a spiderweb from the middle of the building. The temple proper is of course in the exact center, below the broken dome. In the middle of this circular room you will find dead branches gathered together to make a vaguely humanoid shape. This crude figure has been haphazardly painted yellow. A slab of concrete sits in front of it. There is not much to explore here; it is very quiet.

Either temple is a good place to simply rest, or meet some of your fellow Travelers. The High Temple of course has the Temple Chef and its usual Guardians, Flock, and Lantern.

The Island Temple has its own Guardians, which are small, pale humanoids with perfectly blank faces and small antlers like young deer. They will leave you alone unless you try to meddle with the central room. Doing so will result in one of them approaching you, and you will find yourself falling unconscious on the floor.



Ⅱ. THE MASQUERADE
Through happenstance, you find yourself in an enormous ballroom. Low couches are dotted everywhere, and a live band plays somewhere at the end of the massive space. A long bar takes up one side of the room, bottles sparkling under the light cast from the many cut-glass chandeliers hanging overhead. Champagne flows freely, and the scent of gin pervades the air.

All of the attendees are wearing masks.

You're dressed for the occasion, of course - you will find yourself wearing something reminiscent of 1920s America, with a small yellow sigil of some sort pinned to your breast. Ask any of the guests about it and they will tell you, "ah, it's a secret." You too, of course, are wearing a mask. You did not pick this mask, but if you look in the mirror hung over the bar you will find that it nonetheless hints at some aspect of your personality.

Which would be all well and good, except that you can't take the bloody thing off.

Moving around the ballroom, you will discover that a few other people also have the yellow sigil pinned to their clothing. It probably shouldn't surprise you that these people are all other Travelers, equally unable to take their mask off.

No, you can't unmask until you share something with your new-found friend: a secret. A REAL one, the sort you'd never speak aloud.

Of course, you can choose not to share. If you choose that route, however, you'll find that the mask is fusing with your skin. Leave it on past midnight when the cries of "UNMASK! UNMASK!" begin, and it will simply become your new face for the duration of the month.



Ⅲ. THE PLAY
Maybe parties aren't your style. No fear, there's plenty more to do and see in such a wondrous city. There's a theatre - the Meliora Grand as a matter of fact - and perhaps you're just the sort of person who would like to take in the arts.

The theatre has plush seats, and fabulous electric sconces lining the wall. Once you take your seat you'll find yourself looking at the stage, where a blood-red velvet curtain hangs. The theatre doesn't seem to fill up - indeed, it really seems that there's only you and one or two other people there. Curious.


The lights go down and the curtain is drawn open, revealing... well. Not much.

There are two chairs on the stage, a table between them. On the table lays a pallid face: a mask. Just a mask. Why not go on up and take a closer look?

Should you choose to touch the mask, you will feel a deep urge to speak to whoever else is in the theatre. You will, in fact, feel the desire to act out some sort of emotional trauma with them. Perhaps they suddenly look like your mother, your father, a lover who left you. Why don't you tell them how you really feel?

Naturally, you can both just sit in awkward silence instead. You'll be waiting until the morning to be let out, if that's the case.



Ⅳ. LOST CARCOSA
CW: the undead.
You find yourself walking along the beach at night. Along the shore the cloud-waves break, and black stars rise above you.

You can't quite pinpoint when you realise you are no longer alone. Maybe there is only one other person on the beach with you, or perhaps a few; you move as one down the expanse of sand until you realise there is something laying up ahead of you.

There is a heap of yellow cloth there, dry and tattered with age. It smells faintly of spices. Nestled among it is a jewel-encrusted human skull. Its empty sockets compel you to sit down in the cool, bone-white sand, to sit and speak to those around you about loss.

Everyone has lost something important to them. A person, a thing, a place, an aspect of the self. Something that's gone and you're never getting back. The skull grins endlessly, endlessly, encouraging you to speak about something you may not have laid to rest.

You can resist this compulsion. Maybe you were never good at sharing. Refuse the skull's silent request and you may continue down along the beach, or perhaps head back the way you came. As you walk, however, you will notice that there is a fog rolling in. It comes in off the sea/sky, obscuring the beach until you can barely see.

It's a terribly handy cover for the corpses that are shambling out of the surf. Wet, bloated, with eyes that glow a dim gold, they head for you silently. They wish to drag you back with them, into the depths. Better hope you can outrun or outfight them.

Bonus: What's that? You want a Carcosa playlist? You've got it, babes!


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medeiun: ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴏʟʟᴏᴡᴇᴅ ᴀʀᴛɪsᴛs (Default)

THE PLAY

[personal profile] medeiun 2021-05-03 05:32 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Maleficent has been standing in the shadows for awhile now, waiting, watching. This whole thing sets her at unease, and ordinarily she might start casting magic at that mask in attempt to destroy it before it can unleash whatever power it inevitably has.

But she has learned that her magic is not always reliable, in this place. And there is no telling what curses the mask might be capable of. So she stays where she is, silent: until the woman starts moving towards the stage. The dark fey tenses before moving away from the wall she'd been haunting, speaking out to catch the woman's attention. Her sudden appearance could frighten the other: Maleficent is tall and horned, large feathered wings attached to her back, a clearly inhuman thing. ]


Be careful. [ She warns, sharply. ] It could be cursed.
hostile_encounter: hollow-art.com (5)

[personal profile] hostile_encounter 2021-05-04 03:38 am (UTC)(link)
[It's one thing to deliberately start walking towards the mask when she knows she's making a dumb decision in her own head. It's something else when she's given a further warning by a woman who is overwhelmingly magical. And beautiful. In an ominous 'be not afraid' kind of overwhelming mix of features kind of way.

Elenore is definitely startled, but her instinctive response to the unexpected is to pause and reassess. There's a difference between someone who is dangerous and someone who is an active threat. Relatively respectful seems the safe choice for the moment.] Seems likely, doesn't it? Or a trap in some other way.

But I don't see another way out.
medeiun: ᴍᴀʟᴀɢʀᴀᴘʜɪᴄ (pic#14830123)

[personal profile] medeiun 2021-05-07 03:11 am (UTC)(link)
[ Maleficent has no qualms about frightening the other woman — perhaps intimidating her could stop her from further approaching the stage. So she moves closer, letting her eyes flash: an odd mixture of golden and green, practically glowing for how bright they are. ]

Whomever trapped us here means for us to approach it. But we can resist.

[ .....Ideally. Maleficent is not sure what may happen if they do in fact resist, but she is willing to take that risk. She, of all people, knows what a cursed object can do to a person. ]

There may be powerful magic involved. Dark magic.
hostile_encounter: (Default)

[personal profile] hostile_encounter 2021-05-07 04:30 am (UTC)(link)
[The flash of warning coloration is not lost on Elenore, who takes a moment to look Maleficent over again. She could definitely fill the role as one of the powers behind the scenes, but there's that detail of the watch. Just like the one on Elenore's own wrist. Another Traveler, then?]

We could. They certainly are the ones who know the game while we're stuck dealing with whatever they throw at us.

[But she's terribly curious.]

If they wanted to kill us, there are easier ways. What's the advantage of giving us the option of choice?
medeiun: ɪᴍᴀᴋᴇʀᴘɪᴄᴏɴs (pic#14876274)

[personal profile] medeiun 2021-05-12 02:38 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Those questions are ones that Maleficent's been asking herself. Why are these beings testing them? What are their reasons, their perceptions? What is the end goal of all of this? ]

I do not know, [ she answers honestly, sharp eyes moving to the stage yet again for a long moment, to gaze upon it. She can't feel anything strange from the display, but perhaps she's standing too far away. ]

Perhaps killing us is not their ambition. Some curses can do worse than kill a person.

[ Her face tightens slightly, some memory of a thing, a wound, there in her. It's her deepest regret and a guilt still, what she had done to Aurora. What evil she had created from the depths of her own soul. ]

I know of curses where one only has to touch an object, and then will suffer a fate worse than death.
hostile_encounter: (52)

[personal profile] hostile_encounter 2021-05-23 09:13 pm (UTC)(link)
A curse that's worse than death seems kind of like the antithesis of what we're supposed to be going through here. [She's not quite as optimistic about things as she sounds so far, but it's nice to play her own thoughts about someone being even more pessimistic.]

I would not be shocked by embarrassing to the point of humiliation or forcing a point of vulnerability, however. Or something painful.

[She hovers at the point of reaching out. No point in making an enemy, but the lack of knowledge is making her twitchy. This is something that could be answered.]
medeiun: ғʟɪᴇɴ (pic#14830183)

[personal profile] medeiun 2021-06-06 02:02 am (UTC)(link)
Perhaps, though they may have simply told us one truth as to our purpose here, and meant another entirely. [ The Ferryman could have been lying about everything he'd said — this "journey of redemption" could very well be a trek into certain doom.

Forced vulnerability. That is very much what Maleficent dreads, here. She can withstand pain, and she does not feel embarrassment (...or if she does, she won't react to it). But vulnerability? Weakness?

She fears that. And her eyes watch the other woman's hand, fixed intently on it, as it reaches. Quickly, her own snaps out, long fingers enclosing around the other's wrist, grabbing ahold. Her eyes flash — an acerbic green colour, like venom. ]


Do you not fear pain?

[ Out of all the options the other woman had given: humiliation, vulnerability, pain, Maleficent chooses the last to question her about. For she has learned that for humans, pain is often the worst thing they can deal with. ]
hostile_encounter: hollow-art.com (2)

[personal profile] hostile_encounter 2021-06-10 04:07 am (UTC)(link)
A cosmic 'social experiment' does seem like a hell of a way to die. [While her answer may trivial, Elenore does actually consider the possibility they've been terribly misled for the purpose of leading them to some terrible doom. If that is the situation, Elenore is very aware there is basically nothing she can do, so acting in the assumption of good faith seems the better gamble.

She hadn't quite expected the grab from Maleficent, but Elenore hasn't attempted to win a battle of physical strength in a long time and isn't about to start now.] I'm not a masochist, no, but sometimes pain is just part of life.

Honest question, [her gaze shifts between Maleficent's hand on her wrist and her face,] how much of this is trying to save me from doing something potentially stupid and how much of this is concern that you'd be hurt in the fallout?
medeiun: ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴏʟʟᴏᴡᴇᴅ ᴀʀᴛɪsᴛs (✦ — 𝟎𝟒𝟒)

[personal profile] medeiun 2021-06-14 10:22 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Why did she grab the woman's wrist without even thinking about it? It was almost like instinct, and Maleficent finds herself slightly surprised by her own gesture, though her features remain harsh, brows knit, mouth tight. She is not responsible for this woman's safety. Not responsible for the safety of any of these humans. There is only one human she cares for, has responsibility for.

...And yet. She has protected a few of them here. They don't know any better; they are so easily led astray. Part of it is a desire to keep them from further complicating things, from messing with magics they have no understanding of.

Part of it may be something else, some softer part of her that embraces the word Protector, the role she has become accustomed to.

Part of it may be that she has known another girl, with locks of blonde, to reach her hand out to touch something dangerous, and Maleficent's guilt can never be appeased, even after all of this time.

The fae stares hard at the other woman, the question causing her to tense; Elenore may feel how that cold hand tightens harder around her wrist. And then at once, Maleficent lets it go, and does not answer the questions. ]


Do what you will, then. I am not your guardian. [ She seems.... slightly rattled, her cool demeanour shaken. ]